Do you love learning?
Are you a life long learner?
Are you part of the 90% who learn because you have to?
Or are you the 10% that learn because you want to?
Only 10% of the world’s population are Activated Life Long Learners. This means that the Activated Life Long Learners are proactive with their personal, emotional, spiritual and professional development.
These people are the high performing, self-managing types. They invest in themselves and love to learn. They light up at being positive with their learning; they are switched on with what is happening to them and the world. Most of all they are curious; they bring back their child like curiosity.
The rest of the world’s adult population are called Life Long Learners, the 90%. These people are reactive with their development. They will only upgrade, or update their skills and mindset when they have been retrenched, sacked or missed out on a promotion. They only go to training or coaching if the organisation pays for it. They would never pay for their own personal or professional development, they think it is someone else’s responsibility to train them. They do not understand that the benefit is to them for a lifetime.
Which one are you? Are you one of the 90% that roll your eyes at the sparkly eyed people (and that is about you not them) in a meeting, at a party, at a networking event, or even within your family?
The 10% have hope, they are optimistic, they have a go, give it a crack, they have balance – the 90% don’t.
We were all subjected to boring classes throughout our life. Activated Life Long Learners simply did not use that as an excuse to not find out how learning could be fun, interesting, amazing, incredible, dynamic, life changing, inspiring and self perpetuating, driving you on to the next level of development.
Imagine what you may be capable of and what you could achieve if you had experienced great training events from the beginning. The reason most people are not proactive, is because they have not had a good learning experience and live without a love of learning.
There is good news if you have had the realisation that you have been reactive to your personal or business development. You can shift quite easily into being an activated life long learner by taking responsibility for your personal life, your career, your spirituality and being curious about your true capability.
I am now an Activated Life Long Learner. I love to learn, I am happiest learning new things or working on how to improve myself or having more skills.
In my darkest times, I had stopped learning and developing, I just turned up each day, I was not open to any opportunities. I was sitting on the sidelines of life and not participating even though in my younger years I was a voracious learner. I had turned myself into one of the 90% which was part of the reason I was extremely unhappy.
Once I identified this, I took responsibility for bringing learning, personal development and resources into my life, so I had a clear pathway for growth. I was excited to see it unfold, to see what turned up and create momentum to clear away the darkness.
I learnt that I had to take a step, then another, then another to start my journey without necessarily seeing how far the path was. I committed to myself to trust in the process and add what was missing in my life - inspiration; driving force; fun; energy; happiness; balance.
So instead of sitting on the sidelines I became engaged in life, I reignited my passion of being an Activated Life Long Learner.
I found ways to become an Activated Life Long Learner. Here are some examples to start you on your proactive learning journey:
Sign up for a workshop in personal development
Be interested with what others are doing to live happily
Read personal development books
Listen to podcasts
Do an online course
Go on an educational cruise
Invest in learning
Upgrade your work skills
Watch documentaries
Go to a retreat to learn about yourself
Attend an event to learn a new skill
Be curious and ask better questions
Always be open to how you can learn more
When I found out my Life Purpose – to live, to learn, to love, to grow – I realised that it is a must for me to continue to learn, it fills me up, it makes me feel worthy, it encourages me do things that are outside the comfort zone, that are fun, that are adventurous and I feel strong, sure of myself and happy.
My learning is about myself, my skills as a coach and mentor, my life experiences, my relationships, nature and the list goes on. I find I learn from every person I meet, every mistake I make is not seen as a mistake but a learning opportunity.
I have been on a personal development journey to address what held me back now I am learning how to live the life I want. This learning occurs every day for me and I love it.
From learning I grow. I grow as a person, a woman, an adventurer, a sparkly-eyed child, a speaker, a mentor, a loving partner, a nurturing mother and nana.
I do not make the slip-up of being an information gatherer. I used to make this mistake. I would read lots so I knew about lots of things but never put them into practice. It would be like buying this book, agreeing with everything I have said, then closing it up and moving on to the next book without implementing anything. This is a common pattern for people. They feel like they can talk on a subject because they have read about it, but they have not lived it.
I began doing courses and reading personal development and business books and I would not close them up and put them away until I identified at least one thing I could take away, put into action and give a go.
Now I get results. I get the results I want or I learn from the results that I do not get. At least I am giving it a go and being activated in my learning and not being stuck anymore.
In Japan, Kaizen means constant and never-ending improvement. I became aware of it as a Project Manager in my government job when I was learning a particular type of improvement process. Now I use it for my life. I use it constantly so I change course easily, be okay when chaos or when challenges enter my life and to be consistently expanding my skills.
Chuck Gallozzi says:
“We have an innate desire to endlessly learn, grow, and develop. We want to become more than what we already are. Once we yield to this inclination for continuous and never-ending improvement, we lead a life of endless accomplishments and satisfaction”.